Returning Valley natives fuel local economy's youth, growth

Amanda Mace Clark, taproom manager at Redbeard Brewing Co., puts a sign in their window to let the public know they are open 7 days a week. She works on July 27, 2018.(Photo11: Mike Tripp/The News Leader)Buy Photo

STAUNTON - You walk into the door of the red brick building on Lewis Street in downtown Staunton. There’s a little bell that chimes as you enter and the bartender welcomes you with a smile and “Hey, how are ya?”

You’re at home here. It’s like your own neighborhood “Cheers.”

You know everyone’s name. You know their story. And if you don’t, you get to know real fast.

There's an uptick in the younger generation moving to the Shenandoah Valley. They're opening new businesses. Have new ideas. And they want to do it in and around Staunton.

It started with smaller businesses on the main strip. Breweries popped up, drawing a younger crowd, and more business opportunities began to present themselves.

Population in the region, which spans down the Shenandoah Valley from Rockingham to Rockbridge counties, has increased by 5 percent over the last 10 years, according to the Shenandoah Valley Partnership data. The 30 to 34 age group has increased its presence by 21 percent since 2008, and the population cohort ages 25 to 29 has increased 10 percent, according to the data.

With more for a younger crowd to do, the more they want to invest in a community and call it home.

Grabbing a pint

Sitting at Redbeard Brewing's wrap-around bar, It’s easy to talk to other people. Lots of out-of-towners end up there when they’re on the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail.

As it turns out, a lot of the out-of-towners who decide to stay have a past link with the area.

But you encounter a lot of the same stories: You just moved here for a new job. You grew up, traveled out of the area and came back. You came for a visit and never left.

The bartender of the place could tell you one of those stories.

Coming home again

Amanda Mace Clark grew up in Staunton. She went to all the Staunton City Schools and graduated from R.E. Lee High in 2000 — her parents grew up here, too. She remembers her childhood as filled with outdoor activities where she would play outside until the street lights came on. Strolling downtown Beverley Street or traipsing around the city’s two parks.

“I loved growing up here,” she said.

Clark was active in school with theater and volleyball. And her love of theater grew. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do exactly, but she was intrigued by all things drama-related. She originally was going to stay in Virginia, go to Blue Ridge Community College then onto Virginia Commonwealth University.

It wasn’t until a friend told her about Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. She did a year-long film program and set out to Hollywood to work in television.

“It was really intimidating,” Clark said.

She was scared to leave her home, friends and family, but she was ready for a new adventure. She also had someone to go with on the cross-country trip, so she had a small support system.

“I did want to experience something different,” she said. “It was really tough to leave my family. If I was by myself I don’t know if I could have done it.”

From there she worked in reality television and scripted shows like “Curb Your Enthusiam,” “Niptuck,” “24” and “Gossip Girl” in post production.

She worked on “24” for four years on a separate sound stage where everyone worked close together. She went to award shows, she hung out with stars — she was living the Hollywood life.

“It was amazing, we were all a big family,” Clark said.

But she missed her family back east.

When filming would wrap, she would have about a month of downtime so she would travel home. The week-long trips turned into two weeks, then three, then the entire month. Even after 10 and a half years of living in Los Angeles, she thought her homesickness for Staunton would go away.

It didn’t.

On April 22, 2013 she moved back home. She met her husband, caught up with old friends, met new friends and was back with her family.

“I want to raise my kids where I was raised,” Clark said. “I miss my job out there, it’s fun and I’m very passionate about that, but I’m more passionate about my family.”

She started working in wineries in California, so when she moved home she had lined up a job at Bluestone Vineyards in Bridgewater. Then she started working at Redbeard part-time and started getting into the craft beer world.

She worked at Blue Mountain Brewery for awhile, then was offered a full-time position at Redbeard as the taproom manager. She loves being part of the downtown culture and that special feeling that Redbeard, and downtown Staunton, has.

“Downtown Staunton is one of the coolest downtowns of any city anywhere,” she said. “It’s cool to be a part of. We have a really awesome regular customer base.”

But she also looks forward to the new people and the tourists. It’s always the same story — somehow they just stumbled upon the small brewery. Most recently, two women came from England and after landing at Dulles, they drove down to Staunton and walked into Redbeard just in time to watch the World Cup final.

“They said it was their first stop,” Clark said.

Although it’s not the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, Staunton and the Valley have an interesting mix of characters. Plus, she gets to interact with all of them at Redbeard putting together events and different community gatherings.

“I’ve met so many cool people,” Clark said.

Small town boost

Some are returning home to help engineer a new local economy. The younger millennial generation has left, come back and discovered what they are capable of doing in their small towns.

Nick Walge, director of capital at the Staunton Creative Community Fund, moved away from home and returned. He's another of those faces you might have seen around the bar — he also used to work at Redbeard.

Walge graduated from Buffalo Gap in 2006 and left to attend Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont where he studied professional writing. He had big plans to go out to San Francisco for an internship after he graduated.

Initially, he felt fine about leaving for the West Coast. He had a good support system back home and he was ready for bigger things and a bigger city. But his father got sick and he stayed home.

“It didn’t feel like a good risk,” he said.

He felt like had missed out on something and at times felt a bit lost in his own home town. But he’s built a life here.

“I don’t look back at what could have been,” he said.

He watched downtown change and grow — but in all the best ways — as he was growing along with the city he grew up in.

“The thing that didn’t change in downtown was that it never got a McDonald’s or an Urban Outfitters,” he said. “The people who are doing things in downtown are locals.”

He loves the local-feel of the place. Everything is homegrown. It’s something he gets to see on a daily basis at his job at the SCCF. Those people he meets that are trying to get loans for business or advice on business plans have become part of the Staunton family.

They become neighbors, Walge said. And those neighbors, literally and figuratively, become your family. It’s something that’s hard to find in a larger city, he said.

“A lot of larger cities don’t have that watering hole you walk into and you know everyone,” he said. “I think the ability to look down the bar or across the street and say, ‘Hey I know that guy and I know they’d have my back.’ That sense of community can be driven to make change. It’s easier to have that big impact.”

The ever growing Valley

The Staunton, Augusta, Waynesboro area is home to more than 120,000 people. Population is expected to reach up to 127,600 by 2020 and to near 150,000 by 2040, according to the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission.

It’s not a hard sell to live in this area.

“We’re a more rural location, but there is a lot of diversity and a diversity in lifestyle,” Amanda Glover, Augusta County Economic Development Director, said. “There is a lot of access to cultural amenities that you might find surprising for a more rural location. You can really pick your lifestyle.”

In 2008, Augusta County saw 155 new jobs and nearly $39 million in investment. In 2017, the county saw 206 new jobs which brought in nearly $79.9 million in investment.

“What is constant is that we have some really good manufacturing employers and we still have a very strong health and education segment of our economy,” Glover said. “We have remained diversified ... it's not like a 100 percent of our workforce is employed in manufacturing … roughly 20 percent of our workforce is employed in manufacturing. And another 20 plus percentage is employed in healthcare.”

It’s the diversity in the county that brings in all different types of people, Glover said. The county has companies which employ thousands of people, and others that employ only a few.

“We have a lot of diversity in company size as well as company sector. So I think that's one of our definition of our strong suits,” she said. “Those segments have continued to grow and I think a lot of our numbers are a result of the strength of those industries.”

In 2010, Staunton saw no new jobs, but brought in $750,000 in investment. In 2016, the city saw 45 new jobs with $20 million in investment.

“We’re competing for companies, so is the world. We’re not competing just with the city of Harrisonburg, or Charlottesville or Richmond. We’re competing with the world and the nation for that company,” said Billy Vaughn, director of community and economic development for Staunton. “In Staunton, probably for the first time since the 1990s, we have seen an increase in population. A community that isn’t growing is dying."

For most of the area, the full effect of the recession slowed things down for a few years.

In Waynesboro 10 years ago total employment was 11,060; five years ago, 10,080, and in the first quarter of 2018 10,256, according to Greg Hitchin, Waynesboro economic and tourism director.

“Industries that we talk to are generally reporting growth,” he said. “The city is preparing for future job opportunities by investing in Natures Crossing Technology Center. The 170 acre industrial park, when fully built out, will have up to 1.2 million square feet of building and an estimated 500 to 700 employees.”

'An authentic, genuine experience'

The median age for the area is 41. But, it’s not hard to get the younger generation to move here.

The living characteristics here have the ability to attracted to a wide variety of people, including Millennials.

“I think part of it is because Millennials in a lot of cases are looking for an authentic, genuine experience. I think that's what you get here is you get,” Glover said. “A genuine experience and you do have the opportunity to make your own way. If you want to buy a small farm and do an agritourism venture, you can do that here. And it's not impossible and the price tag isn't so high that it's unobtainable.”

It is a struggle to get younger people here, between the ages of 20 to 23, ones that are right out of college. They’re looking for a bigger city, Glover said.

“What our private companies would tell you is that they’re pretty good at capturing or recapturing 28 to 30 year olds who maybe grew up here or maybe went to college here and went to the metro area,” she said. “Now he's ready, he has found a partner to settle down and the kids are in the picture. All of a sudden safety and going to a nice public school we know is important. As people's priorities change I think our area is really good at attracting or re-attracting what I guess would be described a Millennial on the upper threshold.”

And new companies are attracting those types of people.

“The positive in that is that they could choose to live in those areas and they used to live here because they appreciate the quality of life and they want to come home to Augusta County,” Glover said. “But I think what drives that more than anything is just the jobs that are available. As we continue to work through economic development, the companies that we attract and the kind of jobs we offer I think will drive where people live.”

The cities lacks an academic engine like Harrisonburg's James Madison University or Charlottesville's University of Virginia, where most of the younger adult population is attributable to student populations.

“You look at those numbers and the median age is much younger because of the colleges,” Vaughn said. “We do have a university, but it’s a very small university. They don’t have the economic impact that JMU or U. Va. has on those two cities. But, back in the 1980s, JMU was only like 4,000 people. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have the benefit of the impact a university has. Currently we just don’t.

“It’s easy for those two communities to attract young people, because you already have a density or cluster of young people there,” he added. “Then you have with that cluster you start seeing amenities that are more focused on the younger generation.”

Working and growing together

The goal is to create a great working and living community in the Valley. That’s why the three localities aim to work together for the greater good.

“Staunton, Augusta, Waynesboro have always had our separate tourism efforts, but also our joint tourism efforts. I think the Beerwerks Trail is a great example of that,” Glover said.

The trail started a new program this past year, which allows beer enthusiasts to collect stamps from breweries along the trail to win a free T-shirt. From its inception, more than 800 redeemed passports, over 5,000 brewery visits and there were visitors from over 34 states.

“Any time there are opportunities for us to work together, you do that. To develop relationships, that’s done on a regional level,” Vaughn said. “It’s all about outreach, marketing, developing relationships and then hopefully getting that project.”

The worry of overcrowding isn’t a big fear right now. The state of downtowns like Waynesboro and Staunton will remain. Staunton’s downtown can’t add skyscrapers and Waynesboro’s downtown is slowly filling up. The main way to grow is out.

In terms of growing too fast, the Valley isn’t in danger of becoming the next Northern Virginia. According to Courtland Robinson, business development director for the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, with the unemployment rate in Virginia at 3.2 percent, many companies are trying to recruit. Plus, the Valley has a low cost of living with a median home cost at just over $170,000 and a median household income at just about $50,500.

“As a region, our capacity for growth rests with the ability of our businesses to efficiently produce goods and services while reaching their customers as quickly as possible,” Robinson said. “The Valley’s productive workforce, pro-business and low-cost area, location along the I-81 Corridor and proximity to major markets provides businesses here the ability to scale production as needed.”

There is demand for more commercial and industrial spaces — which places like Mill Place Commerce Park in Verona and the upcoming Waynesboro complex will be able to bring in more companies. Staunton Crossing and Frontier Center both have potential to bring in industry jobs and housing opportunities.

“The Valley’s diverse array of industries serves as a regulator, both in times of economic growth and in times of economic recession,” Robinson said. “Factors such as increased competition, tax reforms, U.S. Policy, global trade, access to skilled labor, and a generally positive economic outlook have companies rethinking their growth strategies and acting on deferred investments.”